


Am I Free Now?

by deathwailart



Series: Rhiannon Amell [13]
Category: Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age: Origins
Genre: Gen, Headcanon, Legends
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-04
Updated: 2014-08-04
Packaged: 2018-02-11 17:57:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 792
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2077614
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/deathwailart/pseuds/deathwailart
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Slayers of Archdemons aren't supposed to live long enough to hear their own tales.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Am I Free Now?

**Author's Note:**

> Repost from tumblr, you can read it and see the ugly graphic to go with it [here](http://bansheesquad.tumblr.com/post/83234367554/rhiannon-amell)

When the detractors come - and they will come, they were there from the start you see - once the spark of her heroism has worn off, they will say many things about this young woman. They will sniff and say it’s about time a mage helped to fight the very thing they inflicted upon us. They will look upon her with scorn; what does a girl raised in a tower, locked up and kept under guard know of the world outside her books, what does she know of the common man and his struggle. What right does this girl have to slay the Hero of River Dane, to put this Theirin bastard - if he’s even a bastard, old Eamon married that Orlesian and had a mage son didn’t he, how can you really trust his word? - and to take up an Arling? At least she had the sense to bid him and Anora wed so perhaps she’s not entirely a lost cause. She might be an Orlesian herself; not a proper Fereldan when she comes from Kirkwall because people know those names, we’re not all the savages the Orlesians would have you believe. Look at her, consorting with bards and letting an Antivan elf who was hired to kill her into her bed, that’s not the sort of hero you tell your children about is it? A mage who thinks she can put a new king upon the throne - oh they love their Calenhad until they’re reminded about just who helped put _him_ on the throne - and did you hear she recruited one of those damned qunari? Besides, I thought they were meant to die when they slew those Archdemons, maybe it wasn’t even a proper Blight after all, it took what, a year? Nothing like the tales of old.  
  
(They do get the blood magic right but she does not confirm it, not a word. The guilty secret and a saviour’s words: we do what we must to end the Blight and fight the Darkspawn, her tainted blood, the forbidden magic of the Magisters, the research of Avernus; her duty is to the Wardens, she will do what she must, cut and cut again until there is nothing but Ferelden and her duty left to her.)  
  
Just look what she recruits. The son of a traitorous old Arl, lets him swan around his old home. A drunk disgrace of a dwarf who couldn’t stop following her. A _dalish_ of all the things. And what’s this about walking corpses? Y’know, the ones that aren’t dwarves who’ve sworn themselves to a duty of their own. 

(They all talk of the attempts on her life, the seneschal who took that arrow Maker rest his soul and the black fox and didn’t you know she had one of them witches of the Wilds with her and all, maybe she slips her skin and prowls, hears all, oh hush up and have another pint, not all walls have ears.)  
  
And later, when she does her duty and lets Amaranthine burn to save the Wardens and defeat another evil they’ll point fingers, send hired swords and spells after her. Look at her, she only cares about herself. Look at how very pragmatic she is. Words of praise become words of scorn and sometimes she will think she valued her own life too much in taking a chance to save her skin; perhaps it would be better to be the dead hero where the sticks and stones would no longer hurt. But she is a Fereldan, despite what they might say so she stiffens her spine, squares her shoulders, she is pragmatic and does what is best for the future of the Grey Wardens who must always stand vigil and helps out the Chanters and anyone else who might need silks recovered or toxin extract from giant spiders. And each night she sits in her study at a restored Vigil, composing letters to her friends, watching the Wardens grow from strength to strength - after all, she’s still friends with King Alistair but better yet, everything she learned about how to be a ruler she learned from their beloved Anora in the end.

(All the rest comes from that dreadful assassin of hers who loves her so dearly that even their good bard friend has to tone down her songs.)  
  
So let them all forget her name, forget who she was, that she was just a young woman finally set free, scared and exhausted and terrified, who screamed and bled and wept for a country who would see all her kind caged and who branded her newfound family kingslayers. She was Hero of Ferelden and she brought them hope and freedom once, one day they’ll remember her that way again.


End file.
